FREE SCHOOL BOOKS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19851, 12 February 1930, Page 10

FREE SCHOOL BOOKS.

— CABINET'S DECISION. (riiEss issociATioKr ■rßtEctSAii.) • WELLINGTON, February 11. Cabinet has decided tb provide free text books for pupils in secondary District High Schools, and tb full-time day pupils of Technical Hign Schools whose parents or guardians are ribt iri a pbsition to provide books. A recent circular to Education Boards from the Education Department advised parents desirous of taking advantage o'f the provision, to apply to the principals of the schools, who are requited to make due enquiry into the of the applicants, and repdrt tb the Board. If the Board approves, free text books may be supplied, and claims for a refund of the cost can be made tb the Department, showing the books supplied and the cost of each. The circular emphasises that purchases shduld be made at as low a cost as possible, and that a careful record must be kept of the expenditure. "If a school has a system of exchange of second-hand books," the letter adds, advantage should be taken of it to reduce the cost of the free supply and when a pupil has n6 further need for a book supplied by the Government it is to be handed back to the school. The free supply refers only to text boolts and not to stationery.